Caden Kvapil Reacts After Third CARS Tour Victory Of 2026 At Florence

Caden Kopel found himself in the CARS Tour Victory Lane for the third time this season, marking his first win since April at Nashville.

How does it feel to get back on track with the CARS Tour?

Although you recently won at the Hampton Heat, it had been some time since your last CARS Tour victory.

Yes, it has been a while.

After Nashville, we finished third for about three consecutive weeks, then hit a dry spell.

We missed a few top-fives and performed poorly at North Wilkesboro.

It was surprising for us.

We're usually strong there, and Hickory wasn't great either, but we started to recover, finishing fifth at Anderson, and now returning to victory lane at Florence is really exciting.

Initially, I wasn't good at this track, but winning my first CARS Tour race here, following my South Carolina 400 win last November, makes it two in a row at Florence.

It's really cool.

This track is one of my favorites.

You can move around a lot, as seen at the end of the race with many drivers shifting positions.

This place is fantastic, and it gives me great momentum for the rest of the year, especially as I lead in points.

Recently, we've been losing points to Trey Eden and Connor, so having a strong night and dominating the second half to regain those points feels great.

We're heading to three tracks I'm really excited about.

There's a lot of momentum now.

With just a few races left, you're in a strong position to secure a CARS Tour late model stock car championship, adding to your pro late model championship from a few years ago.

How exciting would it be to finish off the season and become one of the few drivers to win multiple CARS Tour championships in different divisions?

It would be really cool.

I've seen my brother achieve it in the Super and then consecutively in late model stocks from '21 to '23.

Watching him do that in the car I'm driving now adds pressure to do the same.

Running part-time last year was beneficial for me.

I participated in many races, learned what I needed, and being full-time this year at Junior Motorsports has been great.

We've been consistent, and consistency wins championships.

This win provides momentum, but we must remain consistent through the last three races to secure another championship, hopefully.

Let's discuss this race for a moment.

How much easier was your night because you qualified well for once?

Yeah, I know.

I joked, although it's not a great joke, that I've only had two top 10s in CARS Tour qualifying this year, probably having one of the worst average starting positions of all drivers.

So qualifying well tonight was crucial, and I feel this track becomes easier to pass as tires wear.

However, when trying to pass lap cars before the last few cautions, it was challenging to get around them when they ran the top.

Starting up front was important. Thank you.

Being able to start up front like that and just kind of maintain my gap up front and save my tires as best I could all race was really important.

And, at a track like this where, track position's important and saving tires is important, it's really good to be able to start somewhere up front instead of having to come from mid-pack like I normally do.

Two of your three CARS Tour wins this season, your car owner, Darrell Waltrip Jr., was in attendance.

How cool is that to win when he's here?

Yeah, I guess I do a little better when he's around, so he might need to start coming to some more.

But, yeah, it's really awesome.

He did really well in his Pro car, I guess, debut and finished second, so that was really cool.

I thought he was never gonna run one of those cars before, with how much he talks about how he doesn't really care to, but he did really well, and having him here was really cool.

There's a lot of fans, obviously, a great crowd to win in front of, so that was awesome.

And, I just can't thank everyone on J- at Junior Motorsports enough.

My dad and all the guys, they worked super hard to give me a fast Jerky Boys Chevrolet all night.

It was awesome to put Jerky Boys, Core Parts, and that LK Mechanical Road Rader back in CARS Tour Victory Lane.

It's been a long, I think four, maybe five months now, I don't even know what it's been, but long time without being in the CARS Tour Victory Lane, so to get my third win of the year, it's, really cool.

Has been a long time, but that slump's now over with Caden Kopel back in CARS Tour Victory Lane here at Florence Motor Speedway.

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